Tree History

BLAAUWS JUNIPER

Juniperus x media 'Blaauw'

Cascade Style

Everyone has one of those trees that has been kicking around and been forgotten for a few years and I am no different...

This juniper was first dug up as a young plant from a field in Holland.

The Blaauws juniper is much more popular in the EU than it is here. For some reason garden centres here don't deem it to be a good architectural tree and so they don't stock it.

As a chinensis variety its fine scale foliage is perfect for bonsai. Its blue colour sets it apart from the other green Chinese junipers. It responds well to pruning and does not revert to juvenile needle foliage easily.

After some years of being neglected this is how the tree was when I decided it was about time to do something with it.

20110808.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (1).JPG

20110808.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (5).JPG

20110808.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (4).JPG

August 2011

20110808.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (3).JPG

The lack of pruning has meant that any meaningful foliage was now out on the ends of the branches and with so much time having passed the branches were very stiff and difficult to bend.

It was going to be a challenge and require all of my knowledge of bending branches to bring the foliage back towards the trunk and start to make it look more tree like.

2011

The first thing to do was wrap the branches to be bent tightly with wet raffia. This helps to protect the bark from splitting and coming away from the cambium layer as the branch is bent.

Thick copper wire was then placed along the length of the branches that would be bent the hardest and that was wrapped with raffia to keep it in place.

August 2011

20110809.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (3).JPG

2011

20110809.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (14).JPG

20110809.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (15).JPG

20110809.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (17).JPG

Once the layers of protection were applied some normal wiring could done.

Careful thought was given to the direction that the branches would be bent and the wire was put on to match the direction of the turns that would be put into the branches.

The branch junctions were carefully wired to be supported as they were put under stress to make sure they didn't break away from the main trunk lines.

20110810.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (1).JPG

20110810.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (6).JPG

August 2011

With a few hours of wiring and some grunting and sore fingers the bending was done.

The foliage masses were brought more toward the centre of the composition with dramatic bends. The bending pattern was continued to the ends of the branches so as to blend the characteristics all over.

20110810.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (5).JPG

20110810.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (9).JPG

20110810.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (7).JPG

2012/13

20120529.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (2).JPG

20130722.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (1).JPG

20130722.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (2).JPG

After a couple of seasons to grow and recover from the bending the tree was planted in a square black pot that helped with the semi-cascade image.

2014

20141001.J.chin'Blaauw',cascade,grafted,Holland-LOM,1987 (7).JPG

When the raffia was removed it was at last possible to add some deadwood features.

Sharis were made to show up the different trunks and the directions they were going in.

Jins were made of the branches that were no longer to be kept in the design. They will be adjusted and shortened when final decisions have been made.

2014

The final appearance of the tree.

The hanging branch has been raised a little and the foliage on the right side has been separated into different branchlets and pulled in towards the trunk. I think this improves the movement of the tree to the left.

The black pot provides a subdued place for the tree to grow from and contrasts the white appearance of the deadwood features.

For a forgotten tree kicking around the garden I think this is a pretty good result.